NanoGlycobiology

DI Gerald Posch from the Department of NanoBiotechnology, Laboratory for Biologically Inspired Materials/NanoGlycobiology unit, is together with Dr. Mario Gründlinger an awardee of the Austrian Microbiology Prize 2012 sponsored by Mycosafe Diagnostics GmbH. The Austrian Society for Hygiene, Mikrobiologie und Präventivmedizin (ÖGHMP) recognizes the research of the 28-year old biotechnologist on the protein glycosylation of Tannerella forsythia. The NanoGlycobiology unit at BOKU, headed by Ao.Univ.Prof. Dr. Paul Messner and Ao.Univ.Prof.Dr. Christina Schäffer, has been interested in protein glycosylation in bacteria for more than 25 years. http://www.nano.boku.ac.at/nanoglyco0.html?&L=1 After finishing his diploma work in the field of food science and biotechnology at BOKU he started his research in the field of nanoglycobiology. In the frame of his PhD project that is supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF he, together with Dr. Martin Pabst and Ao.Univ.Prof. Dr. Friedrich Altmann from the Department of Chemistry (BOKU), could identify a general protein O-glycosylation system in the oral pathogen Tannerella forsythia. Based on the so far unique structure of the produced glycan that is present also as a decoration of a so-called cell surface layer protein, first insights into the function of protein glycosylation in the biofilm formation and virulence potential of Tannerella forsythia were obtained. http://www.jbc.org/content/286/44/38714.long

Structure of the S-layer of glycan of Tannerella forsythia. (e-mail: gerald.posch(at)boku.ac.at )